


POV: The Medium

by Libitina



Category: Rashomon - Fandom
Genre: Alternative Perspective, Class Assignment, First!, Gen, No Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 09:05:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8138377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Libitina/pseuds/Libitina
Summary: Magic is a real and powerful thing, but it is not supernatural. The role of a medium is a complicated one because people come to you looking for answers, but only the ones they are expecting to hear. In order to foretell the future, it helps to know the past and the motivations of those who will influence outcomes. In order to recount the past, but the easiest way to acquire knowledge is to have shaped the past with your own influence.





	

Magic is a real and powerful thing, but it is not supernatural. The role of a medium is a complicated one because people come to you looking for answers, but only the ones they are expecting to hear. In order to foretell the future, it helps to know the past and the motivations of those who will influence outcomes. In order to recount the past, but the easiest way to acquire knowledge is to have shaped the past with your own influence.

The last time I had to provide testimony as a medium, there were quite a few steps that happened before I ever appeared in that court. 

A woman requested to see me, so I traveled from Yokkaicho to her town of Kokufu, in the province of Wakasa, in order to separate her son-in-law from her daughter, Masako. The mother thought it would be a good marriage when Kanazawa no Takehiro was courting and invited them for dinner at the house of his family. She told me that they had been impressed by the fine furnishings and wall hangings in his house. The woman had thought it would be an advantageous pairing. But most importantly, she had remarked upon the deep respect he held for his future wife. So the marriage had gone forward and they had moved into this woman’s house.

At first she had loved having made a match with such a dutiful son-in-law, but as time passed and she did not have a grandchild she discovered more and more faults in his character. He was not a good swordsman. He did not actually bring to their household much of his parent’s money. He had no friends around town, but was always staying in the house. He seemed to think he was better than everyone else. And the house was filling up with his stuff - so much stuff - all carefully polished and sorted and put on a shelf to not be touched again. It was like Masako was one of his possessions - carefully displayed on a shelf, but not actually touched.

So I made a traveling amulet for her to give to her daughter so that Takehiro might be encouraged to take his wife to the capital city (where she might meet other samurai and perhaps the son-in-law would get drunk enough to pick a fight and be killed by a better swordsman). It seemed a likely first step in finding her a way to be free of him honorably. Amulets work in a variety of ways and must be carefully prepared. On the one hand, they put hope in the wearer’s heart and then they tend to work toward a specific goal on their own. On the other hand, the imagery on the case and scents from the contents combine to evoke - well, in this case, a bustling city with all of its flaws and camaraderie. It evokes the need for strong men to come together and support the city, protecting it against bandit raids and destitution. I also added just a hint of lingering scents of indulgent tea tastings and political conversations late into the evening. It was a powerful enough talisman that they left the following week on sensho, since those are good days for travel and starting an enterprise. It was a job well done, and I was content knowing I had earned my fee.

A month later, I received a request from Masako herself inviting me to visit her in Kyoto. She was still with her husband. We contrived to say that I was a distantly related and recently widowed aunt in need of emotional support. Takehiro offered to let me stay with Masako in her room - since apparently while the journey had not parted them, nor had it brought them closer together. The first day we went with one of the servants of the house to tour the city, still rebuilding from the earthquake two months ago, but we avoided the area where there had been a fire last week. It was not the bustling city I remembered - hungry children and animals lingered in doorways trying to find respite from the summer’s sticky heat. 

On the second day of my visit, she confessed that she wanted to leave the city and return home, and she begged for my help. I felt pity for her and contrived a plan to fulfill both her petition and her mother’s. We would work harder to get her husband killed so she could be free to leave - and leave on her own. And, foolishly, I still thought that drunkenness would be the key to success. Woe, for I was mistaken. But I purchased herbs which she was to steep in his sake as she warmed it. And a curse upon my skill, for the drink did , indeed, make him exceedingly drunk. But instead of fighting and losing his life, the fool gambled and lost his entire fortune. So now poor Masako still had a husband, but a husband whose only material possessions left were his clothes, hat, weapons, horse, and wife. But I did not lose honor in this transaction because magic causing this loss did require him to leave Kyoto and take Masako back to Kokufu.

I made sure to leave before they did so that our paths would not cross and the facade of familial ties be exposed. But I was set upon by bandits! Well, one bandit. But a very fierce one with a terrifying reputation - Tajômaru - and I feared for my life and my own safety. But then it occurred to me that this was also an opportunity. Perhaps I could still arrange a trap for Takehiro and free Masako. So I wove him a story and foretold his future, while also working in warnings about the demons that would pursue him should he harm a mystical woman like me. Just one day ahead, there would come two travelers just before noon, and that the spirits would reward him if he seized his chance to kill a foolish samurai. 

Sometimes just telling someone what they will do is sufficient magic to bring that future to pass, but only if you can contrive, as I did, to worked the story around to where the bandit had convinced himself that the entire enterprise was his own idea. The only thing I could do for Masako was to suggest to him that marrying her would suit her better than violence - for I had heard about the women found dead by his hand. But even if she died, that would still help safeguard my professional reputation.

Even worse, however, was that she lived. Disgraced and on trial. But as the witchy woman of the neighboring town (and having paid a few of the other magic workers to refer me), the magistrates came to me independently to seek my help pulling forth the dead man’s testimony. I paid a man to sit as an observer to the trial and report back how the other witnesses had represented themselves. 

Since both Tajômaru and Masako did not mention me, that left me with a little bit more freedom to weave Takehiro’s version. The bandit would have no complaints with my version, as I cleared him of blame as clearly as possible, even having him leave the scene well before the husband’s murder. I was also careful to show him not defending his wife as he should have so that is was clear to the court that she was unappreciated. And I had to have his side of the story say that he had committed suicide in order to remove blame of homicide from both parties. 

I also had to make a choice about Masako. Now remember, my audience and all who would be judging her were men. There was no contesting that she had been raped because that required directly calling everyone a liar, and instead we must slip sideways. So I had her telling the bandit to kill her husband. But also that was important to show that she had shame and that she could not possibly have done the murder herself. And then she must have run away so that she could not have killed her husband. 

Sure the judge was confused by the story, but I left with my reputation secure and payment for my testimony.

**Author's Note:**

> Bibliography
> 
> Akutagawa, Ryunosuke. In a Grove. Translated by Takashi Kojima http://fullreads.com/crime/in-a-grove-by-ryunosuke-akutagawa/
> 
> “Kyoto as Historical City: Historical Kyoto.” Kyoto City Web, City of Kyoto, c.2004. Accessed 13 Sept 2016 www2.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/historical/1200.html
> 
> McCullough, Williams H. “Japanese Marriage Institutions in the Heian Period.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. V.27 (1967) p.1-03-167 - http://www.jstor.org/stable/2718385
> 
> Rokuyo - About. Accessed 15 Sept 2016 www.seiyaku.com/customs/rokuyo-about.html
> 
> “Yokkaichi,_Mie.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc.. last modified on 7 September 2016. Web. Accessed 15 Sept 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokkaichi,_Mie
> 
>  
> 
> Inspiration from Griffith, Nicola. Hild: A Novel.Picador. New York. 2013.


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